Bringing the Lee Enfield into the 21st Century, Indian style

These aren’t the Indian Ishapore 7.62x51mm rifles that served the Indian armed forces and we have so many of in the U.S. These are 8x50R Mannlicher chambered Lee Enfields that are available to the public. The choice of cartridge, or otherwise known as .315 caliber is because of the laws in India, similar to Pakistan, where civilians can’t own small arms in military calibers such as 7.62x39mm. However in this case, we have an Indian take on modernizing the Lee Enfield, complete with a wire folding stock, picatinny rails on top of a carrying handle, and a skeletonized pistol grip. It also has sling swivels on the grip, and at the base of the forend, before the picatinny rail begins. The stock folds to the left via a push button on the right side. It doesn’t look like a very comfortable stock, being just a single metal rod curved into an odd shape, especially for a hunting rifle like it is designed for. The company that produces the civilian legal rifle is the Ordnance Factory Tiruchirappalli, which is the same company that manufactures the INSAS service rifle, currently in military use, and facing alot of design problems. The stock on the other hand, is sold by a retail company called Gun Accessory in Amritsar, India. They offer a number of other accessories for various small arms as well.

Former Infantry Marine, and currently studying at Indiana University. I’ve written for Small Arms Review and Small Arms Defense Journal, and have had a teenie tiny photo that appeared in GQ. Specifically, I’m very interested in small arms history, development, and Military/LE usage within the Middle East, and Central Asia.

If you want to reach out, let me know about an error I’ve made, something I can add to the post, or just talk guns and how much Grunts love naps, hit me up at miles@tfb.tv

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Major Tom

I don’t know whether to go “Hmm, this looks possibly like it might be something” or “AAUGHH! MEIN EYES! KILL IT WITH FIRE!”.

Burst

That is the question.

To my mind, it’s a case of “good idea, poor execution”. Streamlining the slope of the foreend or putting a proper folding stock (with provision for a cheek rest) would go a long way.

A flash-hider or compensator would do wonders for appearance.

Trey

Dumb gun laws beget dumb guns….
On the plus side even a goofy Enfield is still part of a great tradition.

Tritro29

Yeah nothing sounds more public safety than randomly firing in the air.

TVOrZ6dw

I’ll keep my Lee-Enfield No 1 Mk III in it’s original configuration. I just wish somebody would come across another warehouse of milsurp ammo for it.

Tyler McCommon

I still have three boxes of 1945 British Surplus. Unopened lol.

iksnilol

Save them for that special nazi 😛

2hotel9

I have several thousand rds of Indian milsurp picked up in the mid ’90s when it was dirt cheap. Corrosive and spotty on misfires, I have managed to salvage some decent brass out of it. Not comfortable selling any, makes me feel like a shady used car salesman, even when all involved admit it is crappy. Damnable morals. 😉

BattleshipGrey

How does “Bubba” translate into Indian? I’m not totally opposed to “sporterizing” some guns, but that looks wrong on so many levels.

Tom

In India they speak loads of languages so use English as the common tongue.

However if you want a word to express a gun that is poorly made/finished and generally ugly then I nominate INSAS!

Tom – UK

Please India

Anonymoose

JESUS CHRIST HOW HORRIFYING.

gunsandrockets

Wow. And I thought Mossberg had managed the greatest atrocity to classic design with the 464. India, I stand corrected!

I think sporterizing old milsurp rifles is sacrilege. This…this is even worse.

Tom

For much of history Indian weapons were the finest examples one could find both in terms of material and function. Yet they now seem determined to ether make crap or take good designs and crap them up.

Its a bloody hunting rifle it does not need a cheap ass wire stock and a crappy plastic furniture*.

* I have nothing against plastic furniture or even wire stocks. They have their place if couse but a Lee-Enfield is not that place.

Just when you thought TAPCO was the worse thing you could do to a gun, the Indians prove you wrong.

Major Fret

Way to rail rape an old firearm.

Marc

They should just stick to crapping in the street.

Bigbigpoopi

DESIGNATED

Madcap_Magician

Indian firearms are an excellent argument against state-owned industries.

Joshua

are they new manufactured rifles? if so, hear me out here, this could be a good thing, no wait, stay with me, assuming the price is reasonable, I know, I know I’m getting to a point I swear, I would not feel bad in the slightest about butchering one of these rifles for parts, De Lisle conversions, re-enacter arms, non of it, hell even bubba-izing it would be something no one could legitimately harp on, it would be a objective improvement.

“The Lee-Enfield has now changed it’s mind, and decided to become an AR-15”

Tyler McCommon

I’ll keep my Royal Navy No.4 Mk.I just how she looks.

Edward Franklin

Only the finest pile of flaming garbage from the country that brought you the INSAS. I mean they took an AK and managed to screw it up while making it out of soup cans and lawn furniture so is it any real surprise they’re able to so thoroughly molest an SMLE.

iksnilol

Eh, new production so nothing got bubbaed. Kinda looks like a low budget G36 with that tall rail.

I weep for that double barrel shotgun folder, though.

Paul White

True, true, no originals bubba’d, but man they’re still UGLY

iksnilol

Ah, they used to make fun of me, y’know? “ooh, you can’t see without your glasses”.

They mocked me, “you’re blind as a bat and about as ugly as one with the glasses”.

Heh

But I never let it get to me, know why? Because when there’s stuff like this… I simply take them off.

🙂

HenryV

Um…………

Spade

No.

Martin Grønsdal

in Jodhpur, India….

iksnilol

That’s actually pretty nice, I’d chop down the barrels some though.

Patrick

There is a cosmetic “magazine” on a double barrel shotgun…. The only possible use for this is an attempt to trick an adversary (with bad eyesight) into thinking you are armed with a semi-auto rifle…

iksnilol

I know, posturing, that’s a common thing to do when resources are scarce.

Shoot through a drain pipe to change the sound of the gun so the enemy thinks you have some fancy extra dangerous rifle. That’s another trick.

Yallan

Having a stock, might have been more intimidating. Although in Africa, and perhaps India, cutting the stock off is considered ‘tactical and operator’ style stuff, and impresses people.

2hotel9

Ok, this will be the 5th attempt to post this comment, I got all day.

Over the years I have rescued several “sporterized”, ie butchered, SMLEs for parts. No, thats a lie. I did it because it pisses me off when knuckleheads butcher up SMLEs simply because they are f**king knuckleheads. So I would be interested, if the price is low enough, in rebuilding one using that top set. Got a perfect candidate that some knucklehead “sporterized” using a broken hacksaw blade and a razor knife, or a chunk of broken glass. Shoots very nicely, gawd is that b*tch ugly.

2hotel9

See, mods? Wasn’t that easy?

mechamaster

Need to featured this on Bollywood movie.

Xeno Da Morph

Umm…..

Squirreltakular

That video, though…

Tassiebush

I get that there are rules about military cartridges but I wonder why they went for such an obscure chambering?

iksnilol

Maybe common there?

Tassiebush

I am intrigued by that question/possibility!?

Tassiebush

Thinking about it India is such a big country and with a restricted and captive market it’d be easy for a unique cartridge to be the main option. It’d be great to hear from someone in India regarding this!

iksnilol

Completely agree, would love for somebody from India to write about guns in India.

I know there’s plenty of info about guns in Pakistan.

Bob

OK, am I the only one who thinks a pistol grip on a bolt action is awkward and slows you down? Anyway, I do think the design is ridiculous and the stock looks to be uncomfortable, but to each their own. New manufacture and all, if I got my hands on one I’d bubba their bubba, and two wrongs would actually make a right.

iksnilol

No, you’re not the only one. I like pistol grips but on a bolt action it needs to be an open saddle design.

This rifle is built this way for its intended purpose as compact and portable sportsman gun, and its stock appears to be sturdy and comfortable with proper cheek rest – it certainly is nod made from recycled abortionists coat hanger. Those enfields and shotguns are travesty of a long arm designated purely for the (bad) looks, not usefulness, Hell, I bet they even did not employ any kind of industrial designer, nevermind the test shooter. This is what You get when the factory is interested more in leeching money from the state than improving own products.

Tritro29

You need to settle your issue here. Is it the looks or is it the quality…I was addressing the looks. They don’t look any more offensive to me than the Swedish M96 or the Ljungman trounced to be used for Biathlon. Now if they’re crap (and I have to take your word for it) that a different question.

Ryan

I’m actually disgusted.

iksnilol

That looks like something I would use.

:3

El Duderino

So…

VolkCNC

All involved in this program should be summarily executed. By a Ross rifle.

Tassiebush

What’s the background of that type of biathlon rifle?

Vitor Roma

It looks like a G36 with terminal AIDS.

TJbrena

WHY WOULD YOU DO THIS

Tassiebush

Thanks for that. That would be a seriously awesome rifle!

Lawrence Oliver

Fail…

James Rustleford

The finest in “Poo In Loo” technology.

Doc afric

Gentlemen, writing from Uganda…. this……..is what the government would love to see in the USA, as substitute for good old .223 AR 15 / sporterized.. that is NOT tactikool…..I think the Indians succeeded in translating what guv’ment would love to see in every Americans’ hand instead of an AR…, this gun doesn’t know if its comin or goin…,put this trash in the stinkin bin where it belongs, the metal and machining probably sucks too.

maodeedee

Is that the same 8X50R Austrian Steyr cartridge that’s used in the straight-pull Austro-Hungarian Steyrs? If so, the bullet diameter is not .315, it’s a little over .323 or 8.1mm.

The SMLE actions built by Ishapore are actually not bad at all and they are the fastest-firing bolt actions in existence. But not with the stupit wire stock on it.

张浩若

太磕碜了

Mai Eiz

My eyes. My eyes. Rape. Help me. My eyes have been raped. Rape. Rape. Rape. Rape. My eyes. I am more triggered than a function test of a National Guard armory.

Brian M

Get the brain bleach! And the booze! My mind, it’s raping my mind!

LawBob

That really cool open grip strikes me as a really bad idea…I can see fingers or gloves getting stuck in there…